Demand for vocational trucks and trailers continues to be pushed by oil and gas producers, road building and municipal business, according to truck manufacturers and researchers. Revivals in housing and commercial construction are also factors as vocational Class 8 retail truck sales are up 9.2% through July compared to last year, and should be up by 16.4% for all of 2014.

Stephen Roy, who has been Mack Trucks president, sales and marketing for North America since Jan. 1, spent the last five years in aftermarket parts and service, which he says is key to the company’s continued success. We sat down with Roy for more insight.

Time is money, and that’s the essence of a front-discharge mixer. It drives right up to where concrete’s needed and, after the driver adds chute extensions, starts offloading. Terex/Advance Mixer in Fort Wayne, Ind., makes rear-discharge drums for mounting on conventional truck chassis, but its heart is in the front-discharge version that it builds all-new and as glider kits.

When the economy took a dive in 2008 and the construction industry's work dried up, so did much of the market for dump trailers.
As construction begins coming back, there's a growing demand for new dumps. Demand also is being driven by other emerging trends in the market.

When reviewing a product like the Caterpillar CT-660, there is no replacement for getting the opinion of the people who have been using it day in and day out. “The drivers love it,” said John “Dick” Jones, president of Jones Fuel Co. in Columbus, Ohio, talking about the fleet’s first in-service dump truck.

The sloped hood on International's WorkStar 7600 was first shown off at the World of Concrete show in 2010, but with vocational-truck business seriously down during the recession, it only went into production last fall.